is backward.  The Government is a limited monarchy, there being two houses of Parliament—­Peers and Deputies.  The Azores and Madeira are part of the kingdom; there are colonies in Africa and Asia, in which slavery was abolished only in 1878.  The 14th and 15th centuries saw the zenith of Portugal’s fortunes.  At that time, in strict alliance with England, she raised herself by her enterprise to the foremost maritime and commercial power of Europe; her navigators founded Brazil, and colonised India.  Diaz in 1487 discovered and Vasco da Gama in 1497 doubled the Cape of Good Hope.  In 1520 Magellan sailed round the world; but in the 16th century the extensive emigration, the expulsion of the Jews, the introduction of the Inquisition, and the spread of Jesuit oppression, led to a speedy downfall.  For a time she was annexed to Spain.  Regaining her independence, she threw herself under the protection of England, her traditional friend, during the Napoleonic struggle.  She is now an inconsiderable power, commercially thriving, politically restless, financially unsound.

POSEIDON, in the Greek mythology the god of the sea, a son of Kronos and Rhea, and brother of Zeus, Pluto, Hera, Hestia, and Demeter; had his home in the sea depths, on the surface of which he appeared with a long beard, seated in a chariot drawn by brazen-hoofed horses with golden manes, and wielding a trident, which was the symbol of his power, exercised in production of earthquake and storms.  See PLUTO.

POSEN (1,752), a province of Prussia on the Russian frontier, surrounded by West Prussia, Brandenburg, and Silesia; belongs to the great North German plain; has several lakes, and is traversed by the navigable Warthe, Netze, and Vistula.  The prevailing industry is agriculture; the crops are grain, potatoes, and hops; there are some manufactures of machinery and cloth.  Originally part of Poland, half the population are Poles; except the Jews, most of the people are Catholics.  The capital is POSEN (70), on the Warthe, by rail 185 m.  E. of Berlin.  It is a pleasant town, with a cathedral, museum, and library, manufactures of manure and agricultural implements, breweries and distilleries.  It is now a fortress of the first rank.  Gnesen and Bromberg are the other chief towns.

POSIDONIUS, an eminent Stoic philosopher, born in Syria; established himself in Rhodes, where he rose to eminence; was visited by Cicero and Pompey, both of whom became his pupils; maintained that pain was no evil; “in vain, O Pain,” he exclaimed one day under the pangs of it, “in vain thou subjectest me to torture; it is not in thee to extort from me the reproach that thou art an evil” (135-34 B.C.).